by Godlyman 349 Replies latest watchtower bible
Now the biblical fact of the 70-year exile is troubling for Jeffro who is unable to reconcile the simple fact of the first deportation followed by the second deportation, ten years later would somehow be viewed as a composite Exile of 70 years duration with a precise beginning and end.
When exactly did the exile begin? When they arrived in Babylon?
‘scholar’:
Now the biblical fact of the 70-year exile is troubling for Jeffro who is unable to reconcile the simple fact of the first deportation followed by the second deportation, ten years later would somehow be viewed as a composite Exile of 70 years duration with a precise beginning and end.
Firstly, you incorrectly attributed someone else’s comment to me. 🤦♂️ Secondly, neither the main deportation in 597BCE nor the deportation associated with Jerusalem’s destruction in 587BCE resulted in a 70 year exile.
Jeffro...Obviously chronology is a passion of yours. Clearly you have spent a great deal of time on this topic and I'm not suggesting what you have done was worthless. However, I've read a number of well argued articles who similarly found ways to work the math with the objective of defending Bible literalness. IMO, and that is all it is, the point is mute. If you are correct that the 70 year topos, while referring to slightly different things for different authors, can be understood through various math formulas to be close to literal 70 years I'll not debate your numbers. You are making the point that the oversimplified interpretation of the WT or others are certainly not correct and cannot by any stretch be an anchor date for scaffolding a church upon.
As I see it, there are just toooooo many variables and potential starting and ending points to convince me that any calculation is the last word in interpreting exactly what some ancient cryptic mystics meant. For me those esoteric and peculiar usages by both Yahwists and non-Yahwists combined with the prolific numeric symbolism present in the OT add up to the expression resembling a figure of speech or trope. 7 times 10 =70. A sacred number times a sacred number equals a sacred number. Why 70 years defined as a typical lifespan? Why not 71? Why 70 nations, why 70 sons............
Never in a million years, once in a blue moon, in a coons age, a month of Sundays, years on end, light years away, These are modern proxies, void of any sacredness they still mean something other than what a literalist 2500 years from might assume.
BruceX
When exactly did the exile begin? When they arrived in Babylon?
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The Jewish Exile or 'The Exile' of 70 years began in 607 BCE with the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 607 BCE. Such an invasion and deportation of the population caused soon thereafter to flee to neighbouring countries such as Egypt whereas others were deported along with others in the first deportation in 597 BCE to Babylon.
scholar JW
Jeffro
Firstly, you incorrectly attributed someone else’s comment to me. 🤦♂️ Secondly, neither the main deportation in 597BCE nor the deportation associated with Jerusalem’s destruction in 587BCE resulted in a 70 year exile.
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False. The consequences of both the first and second deportation culminated in the Exile which was of 70 years duration as prophesied by Jeremiah, witnessed by Daniel, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and later confirmed by Ezra the historian and Zechariah. Josephus, the Jewish historian also confirms the fact of the Exile of 70 years and its consequences.
scholar JW
peacefulpete
That is why you should read the Bible and seek to understand God's Word for us in this modern age and be taught by Jehovah's Witnesses who alone understand the sacred mysteries of God by means of the Proclamation of God's Kingdom as the Gospel.
scholar JW
peacefulpete:
IMO, and that is all it is, the point is mute.
I think you mean ‘moot’. Anyway, I’ve done better research than many others, and infinitely better than anything Watch Tower has ever come up with. I haven’t seen anything that seems plausibly better than what I’ve provided, and what I’ve provided is fully consistent with professional scholarship without any appeals to supernatural nonsense nor all of the tedious apologetics. But if you imagine there is something more convincing, feel free to share it. But since you don’t think it matters anyway, then I’m not really sure what your point is. What it boils down to is that if I am right, JWs are wrong, and if I am wrong about some aspects, JWs are still wrong.
'scholar':
The Jewish Exile or 'The Exile' of 70 years began in 607 BCE with the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 607 BCE. Such an invasion and deportation of the population caused soon thereafter to flee to neighbouring countries such as Egypt whereas others were deported along with others in the first deportation in 597 BCE to Babylon.
So the 70 years began on the day or week they were deported from Jerusalem?
Funny thing scholar is that I was were you are, I know what you know, I experienced just about all there was to be experienced as a JW. I used to sit with F.Franz in the sauna and listen to his ravings. I heard the infighting and debates carried on in the elevators and halls. I read the books the WT writers quote mined and marked up in the "research library". I got emotionally abused by the system that I devoted my life to. I was there when a dysfunctional foreign branch office was rebuilt by other dysfunctional people. My assigned congregation was impoverished in every respect. I've seen the system work and I've seen it fail miserably. I'm not ignorant of the sincerity of some nor am I ignorant of the duplicity of others. It's a church, nothing more.
BruceX
So the 70 years began on the day or week they were deported from Jerusalem?
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The 70 years began in 607 BCE in the seventh month, Tishri also marked the same month of the Return in 537 BCE in the seventh month. Jehovah God is the Great Timekeeper!
scholar JW
